700,000 Social Workers: Standing Up for Human Rights & Promoting Justice - Essay Sample

Introduction

As social workers, we daily engage in standing up for human rights and promoting justice as ways of giving voice to the minority and marginalized individuals in the community. Social works professionals contribute directly to improving individuals' lives, which in the end, improve society as a whole. There are more than 700,000 social workers spread across the nation going by the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics. All these individuals follow a specific code of ethics and conduct established by NASW, that is the National Association of Social Workers, in 1996. The latest code of ethics was revised three years ago. Primarily, the goal of a social worker's code of ethics is to act as a guideline to daily professional conducts of social works employees. There are up to six ethical principles outlined in the document that spells the idea that every social worker should follow. As an intern at Community Success Initiative, I came face to face with these codes of ethics during a reentry program targeting individuals recently released from prison. Through the six core values of social justice, service, competence, integrity, the importance of human relationship, dignity, and worth of person and honesty, I managed to develop a sense of professional identity as an intern in the organization.

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Service

Under the value of service, social workers main goal is to provide exemplary public service by helping needy individuals manage, address, and resolve existing social problems. The value requires social workers to prioritize public service over personal gain and self-interest. As an intern at the institution dealing with people recently released from prison, referred at the organization as Justice-Involved, we assisted the people in overcoming various challenges (Barsky, 2019). The social works' knowledge and skills are essential in helping these clients to overcome issues such as joblessness, drug abuse, bad experience and even reentry to the society. The services offered at the community-based organization was almost free of charge, meaning that the majority of the workers and interns prioritized serving humanity as opposed to personal benefit.

Social Justice

The second core value is the most important to social workers since these people majorly promote social justice and fight against any form of social injustice (National Association of Social Workers, 2003). Through offering social support and resources to the vulnerable people within the community, social workers fulfil a core value of justice. The primary concern under this act, as social change agents, involves focusing on poverty, discrimination and unemployment. At the Community Center Initiative, the organization engage in several activities that promoted social justice. Through relevant training, the individuals reentering the community would secure employment, education and proper housing. Besides, the organization supports public sensitivity on matters of reentry by formers prisoners. Community Center Initiative encourages the public, including education centres and employers, to respect these individuals reentering the community because they have been rehabilitated. Another concept of social justice at the institution involves the organization, ensuring that the individuals entering the community can access some essential services, information, and resources. In the past, incidences of unequal access to some services between Justice-Involved and others were unequal. Through the right training and community sensitization, this program will promote equality and social justice.

Value

For social workers, there is a general unwritten law that promotes the value and dignity of each person, including clients. The principle of value, according to Congress (2017), helps compassionate and respectful treatment of everyone regardless of his or her culture, ethnicity, and social orientation. Under this third principle, social workers mainly promote individual values based on socially responsible and self-determined principles. The role of social workers in promoting the value principle is to ensure that the client's capacity to change is high, address some needs and become self-reliant. At the center, every social worker knew about his or her role in promoting value principle. As social workers in the organization, we practised double responsibility to the law and the clients. Reentering individuals face many challenges ranging from harmony with the law enforcers to their general belief. At the Community Center Initiative, the education on core value revolves around the Justice-Involved, the society, and the view of the organization. The training is premised on the importance of social responsibility and individual respect principles.

Human Relationships

To successfully deliver their mandate, social workers must recognize the critical role of human relationships. Through social works training, the emphasis is always on the importance of a good relationship between people (National Association of Social Workers, 2003). Human connection is essential in promoting equity, advocacy and the needed social change. The human relationship was applicable at the organization since all social workers interacted with clients, community and other professionals such as law enforcers as partners to assist in healing the reentering individuals. To promote the functionality of the clients when the training at the center is over, social workers at the organization improve their relationship with other stakeholders like family members and law enforcers.

Integrity

Trustworthiness is a vital core principle among social workers regardless of the kind of work they do. To successfully implement their purpose, social workers must, at all time, maintain awareness of their organizational mission, individual ethics and professional values. Integrity principle calls for social workers to act responsibility in public places and place of work to support the values promoted at their organization. One way of promoting integrity is through increasing career competency. The principle of integrity ensures that clients receive the necessary support and services. Integrity is an integral part of the organization's practice because the mission and vision are based on this principle.

Competence

Relevant training is required for professional social workers. Aside from the training, on-job-experience is also a necessary skill for these social change makers. The NASW guideline is categorical in promoting competence in the practice by outlining that individuals should practice in their field of expertise (Barsky, 2019). Social workers are encouraged to expand their knowledge and competence as a way of contributing meaningful practice to the profession. At the center, most social workers strived to be competent through gaining hands-on-experience and also studying and doing research on topical issues. Competence is earned through job training; that is, professionals with relevant experience can also guide you as a new worker.

In sum, as highlighted in this paper, social workers perform essential tasks to promote justice. Because of their critical social role, the body governing this profession has in place the highlighted six core values that every social work professional must follow and respect. Working as an intern with the Community Center Initiative, all these six principles applied to every area of practice. I learned from the time spent at the organization that it is important to treat clients based on these principles to ensure that the reentry initiative becomes successful.

References

Congress, E. P. (2017). What social workers should know about ethics: Understanding and resolving practice dilemmas. Social work ethics, 1(1), 1909-35. file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/124-Article%20Text-348-1-10-20080410.pdf

Barsky, A. E. (2019). Ethics and values in social work: An integrated approach for a comprehensive curriculum. Oxford University Press.

National Association of Social Workers. (2003). Social Work Speaks National Association of Social Workers Policy Statements, 2003-2006. National Association of Social Workers. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.260.